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Science In Islamic Countries

Posted by kdawson on from the 700-years-of-not-much dept.

biohack sends us to Physics Today for a thought-provoking article on the status of and prospects for science in Islamic countries. The author, a Pakistani physicist, posits that 'Internal causes led to the decline of Islam's scientific greatness long before the era of mercantile imperialism. To contribute once again, Muslims must be introspective and ask what went wrong.' The author makes a few strong conclusions, many of which are relevant to the general debate between science and religion. From the article: "Science finds every soil barren in which miracles are taken literally and seriously and revelation is considered to provide authentic knowledge of the physical world. If the scientific method is trashed, no amount of resources or loud declarations of intent to develop science can compensate. In those circumstances, scientific research becomes, at best, a kind of cataloging or 'butterfly-collecting' activity. It cannot be a creative process of genuine inquiry in which bold hypotheses are made and checked."

3 of 1,289 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The Arab World... by rucs_hack · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Islam had it fair share of brilliant scholars, the problem was it had its fair share of fundamentalist religious types, and they won.

    Did you know that there is a good deal of evidence that the western renaissance was started using Islamic knowledge taken from libraries in spain?

    simplified yes, but basically true.

  2. Re:"Here's your problem" by aichpvee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Secularism is a better philosophy than Islam in the same way that rationality is superior to delusion. I'm not sure what you think that has to do with The United States though.

    --
    The Farewell Tour II
  3. Re:"Here's your problem" by LinuxIsRetarded · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A person who believes in one religion easily sees the follies of other religions while remaining amazingly ignorant of how sad their own faith seems to unbelievers.
    My faith (Christianity) teaches me to love everyone, regardless of their economic status, race, or faith. Because I am completely ignorant as to how someone could regard such teachings as "sad," please educate me.

    To me, it feels like you had a part of your brain damaged and turned off when you were a child by your parents before you could protect yourself.
    I can't speak for the person to whom you are replying, but I actually didn't believe in God for the first 25 years of my life.